The present application pertains to rechargeable lithium ion batteries and in particular, carbonaceous composite anode materials or conductive lithium ion glass anodes.
Lithium batteries are seen by many to be a most attractive energy storage device. Advanced lithium-ion batteries have been targeted for various applications such as portable electronics, cellular phones, power tools, electric vehicles, and load leveling/peak shaving and are currently replacing many other traditional power sources such as lead-acid batteries. Ni--Cd and Ni-MH batteries. Some rechargeable lithium batteries use lithium-intercalateable carbon or graphitic anodes, and have an energy density of about 372 mAh/g (i.e., for LiC.sub.6 anodes). Others use metallic lithium which provide much higher energy density, but also undesirably react with the electrolyte. Lithium alloys having relatively large particle sizes (i.e., &gt;ca. 2 micron) have been used before as the anode of lithium batteries, but have resulted in degradation (e.g., cracking) of the electrode during cycling.